THE U.S. ENTERS PERILOUS TERRAIN BY TAKING SIDES IN BOSNIAN POLITICS

Remember the name Biljana Plavsic. She is the little-known President of Republika Srpska, the truculent Serb statelet that is supposed to cooperate in a "unified" Bosnia but doesn't, and she could be the key to U.S. policy's succeeding there. During the past two months, she has enlisted the Clinton Administration and NATO's 35,000 peacekeeping soldiers to her side in a power struggle with indicted war criminal and Serb strongman Radovan Karadzic. By intervening directly on her behalf two weeks ago, the U.S.-led NATO alliance stepped out of its neutral role and straight into its own risky power play.